SOCHI, June 22. /TASS/. Russia will continue to push for a substantive discussion of the Ukrainian issue within the framework of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday.

"We will continue to seek a substantive discussion of the Ukrainian issue within the BWC in order to resolve it and remove this serious irritant from the agenda of the Convention," the senior diplomat said at the international conference titled "Global Threats to Biological Security: Problems and Solutions."

Ryabkov pointed out that Russia "openly makes claims and expresses the utmost concern about the military-use biological activities carried out with the direct assistance and participation of the Pentagon in laboratories beyond the borders of the US, including in former Soviet republics, which are far from the North American continent but close to Russia’s borders."

"Our repeated appeals to the US side to provide comprehensive explanations of such [military-use biological] activities have been left without any duly substantive response. Such secrecy and disregard for Russian claims only confirm their validity," he continued. "Such activity is most often carried out indirectly."

The senior Russian diplomat recalled that, in order to consider well-grounded issues regarding Kiev and Washington’s compliance with their obligations under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), "a consultative meeting on Article V of the BTWC was convened at Russia’s initiative in Geneva on September 5-9, 2022, as well as a UN Security Council [UNSC] meeting to consider the Russian complaint and proposal for an international investigation under the auspices of the [UNSC] in accordance with Article VI of the BTWC." "At these events, as well as at the Ninth BWC Review Conference in Geneva, the Russian side provided the necessary explanations and a large number of files with available materials," he continued, "However, our substantiated questions posed to the US and Ukraine, which were supported by like-minded countries, have not been properly answered, still remain open and should be duly addressed.".